Month: August 2008

I’m currently working with the immensely talented Gus Hughes on an animated doo-dah for 4mations, and it’s been a treat every time a new piece of art lands in my inbox.

The stuff looks gorgeous, and then I noticed that some of the background characters seemed… familiar.

Who are these handsome chaps?

If you’re a… I hesitate to say fan, but if you’ve seen a few Shameless Films, then Reassurance with Chad Banger will be a veritable parade of in-jokes. He drew my spacesuit. I love him, in a wrong way.

A joke that has outlived its shelf-life is consistently referred to as a “clam.” I’ve talked a little about these before, I believe. You know a clam when you hear it. Here are a few of them: “I’m switching you to decaf.” “Check please.” “Who are you and what have you done with ___?” “Did I say that out loud?” “Too much information!” and its brother (hand over ears) “La la la”. Also we have “Was it something I said?” And “That didn’t come out right.” Or “That came out wrong.” And finally “That went well,” and its sister, “He seems nice”.

However, there are ways to adapt or revive clams even after they start to smell. Ways to extend their usefulness…

What’s interesting about the examples given is that they’re the kind of jokes I would avoid using altogether. When your character says “Did I just say that out loud?”, they are talking like a character in a sitcom. And yeah, real people do talk like characters in sitcoms, but I’d like my characters to talk like people who don’t talk like characters in sitcoms. No clams, fresh or otherwise.

Basically, I don’t want to be stuffing something that smells like fish into anybody’s mouth.

MySpace has unveiled a comedy competition to attract extra clips to its new comedy section.The winner of the contest, sponsored by Trident chewing gum, receives £5,000 cash and promotion on the website which the company says would be worth £250,000.

From now until the September 21, comedians are invited to submit their video clips. Judges will select 15 semi-finalists from which MySpace users will vote for their top six who will perform live at a national awards ceremony on November 27.

Comics will need to submit three clips over the course of the competition, and allow MySpace and Trident owner Cadbury rights to use that material, as well as footage from the final, freely.

Dom Cook, head of entertainment at MySpace said: ‘We are creating the platform for true and credible talent to shine through.’